This invention is directed to the field of electrical conductors and more particularly to electrical bus and means for coupling electrical bus.
An electrical bus is a rigid electrical conductor that serves as a common connection between the source of electric power and the load circuits. Bus duct or busway is a prefabricated conduit used to enclose and protect bus running therethrough. Because of the power required in industrial settings, electrical bus, because it can handle heavier electrical loads, has been used in place of circuits and wiring. Ordinarily, bus duct assemblies for electrical distribution systems consist of factory assemblies of bus conductors in straight section lengths having at least one end of which is bent from straight to a spread apart position for coupling to other lengths of bus conductor by means of special fittings for joining the lengths. Prior art electrical bus has taught use of separate couplings to connect or to couple electrical bus. One of these prior art structures teaches a splice connector having multiple components, including multiple main phase connector plates, inner insulators, outer insulators, splice plate, a square-shaped bolt insulating tube for insulating a bolt, used to draw the plates together. Another discloses a connection block having conductive splicing pads that abut a bus and couple the bus to another such conductor bus, by means of hooks or the like carried by the splicing pads, the assembly held in place with bolts and dimpled washers. Other previous patents have taught use of pronged couplers for connecting adjacent bus.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,008,365 Carlson, discloses paired phases of bus duct in which a pair of different types of bus duct, each surrounded by an insulation layer, are combined e.g. an A phase combined with a B phase, or an A phase combined with a C phase type bus conductor. A neutral phase has also been shown with this type of paired phase bus conductor.
All previous attempts at coupling electrical bus require connectors that have multiple components that, in addition to adding to the cost of manufacture, add complexity to the installation. An additional problem has been the inability to carry the required electrical load needed in industrial settings. Another problem has been the difficulty in adapting standard pieces of bus and couplings to the particular dimensions of an individual job. It has been very difficult to field cut the previous bus to the appropriate lengths because the previously used bus duct, because it was not flat throughout but had spaced apart ends at at least one end of the bus conductor, had to be manually taken apart, the connectors detached, the bus individually cut, reassembled and the multi-component connectors re-attached. A further problem has been the cost associated with single-use bus which increases costs when relocating electrically powered equipment requiring installation of new bus.